Kumogakure
Crash!!
A cup shattered on the ground, fragments scattering everywhere.
"You bastards!!"
The Fourth Raikage slammed a foot onto his desk, one fist clenched as he glared furiously at the ninja before him. His teeth ground together in a rage barely held in check.
The Cloud ninja delivering the report stood trembling in place, sweat beading on his forehead.
"Konoha seems to be getting far too arrogant, bro. What should we do about it?" Killer Bee appeared at the side, making some hand signs and speaking in his usual rapping rhythm.
The Fourth Raikage's fist tightened even further as he growled,
"That Hokage of Konoha really is getting out of hand… that bastard!"
"I'm sorry, Raikage-sama," said Dodai with a sigh. "But we simply can't afford to start another war with Konoha. Even though their Fourth Hokage and Danzo are dead, the Legendary Sannin are still around, and the Third Hokage probably still has fighting strength left. Plus, the younger generation, Sharingan Kakashi, Body Flicker Shisui, they've all matured. Not to mention the Fifth Hokage, who's almost as powerful as the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama. If we go to war now, we don't stand a chance."
Bang!
The Fourth Raikage slammed his palm on the desk again, cracking its surface like a turtle shell. He glared at Dodai.
"So we're just going to let them walk all over us?!"
"As much as I hate to admit it, right now we have no choice but to endure." Dodai's voice was low and steady. "All the other villages took heavy losses during the war. Now that peace has finally been established, none of them would dare join another conflict. We simply can't take on Konoha alone."
He paused, suppressing the rest of what he wanted to say:
Right now, Konoha is at its peak. Kaede's presence is like that of the legendary First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. As long as Kaede is alive, war is simply not an option.
Just like in the old days, no village dared provoke conflict while Hashirama still lived.
It wasn't until after his death that the First Great Ninja War broke out.
"Damn it…" Grinding his teeth, the Fourth Raikage turned and shattered the window in one motion, then stormed out of the office toward his training ground.
Though he was seething with anger and frustration, he also understood full well that a solo war against Konoha would end in nothing but tragedy.
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Konoha
Behind the Hokage Rock, deep in the mountains.
In a wide open clearing, Kaede floated silently in mid-air. Six black orbs of Truth-Seeking Balls hovered around him, slowly rotating up and down. His hands overlapped in front of him, pressing into the empty air.
Jet-black sealing formulas radiated from his palms, stretching in all directions like a net of chains, binding and constricting the space in front of him.
Zzzzz,
The black chains wove together rapidly, eventually wrapping around and restraining a figure floating opposite Kaede, a Wood Clone that looked exactly like him.
As the chains drew inward, they transformed into a black sealing pattern that imprinted itself onto the clone's body, causing it to shudder slightly.
"…Tch."
Kaede frowned, then snapped his fingers. The Wood Clone instantly crumbled into nothing.
"Still not right. The chakra keeps leaking out from the seal."
The chakra of Hamura Otsutsuki was at a Six Paths level. Ordinary sealing techniques couldn't contain such power, not even the strongest of the Uzumaki Clan's seals, including the Eight Trigrams Seal.
Technically, something like the Six Paths: Chibaku Tensei, which combined Yin-Yang Release, could do the job. But that wasn't what Kaede needed.
What he needed now was a method to sever the connection between Hinata and the Hamura chakra lingering in her body, as if sealing a Tailed Beast.
Which meant he had to invent a suitable sealing technique.
Over the past few days, Kaede had visited Kushina a few times and thoroughly learned all of the Uzumaki clan's sealing arts and secret techniques. Then, using his Six Paths insight, he began analyzing and refining them.
Although his recent attempts still couldn't fully seal the Wood Clone imbued with Six Paths chakra, the leakage had been decreasing each time.
"The problem might be with the terminal formula... I probably need to adjust that, and slightly modify the beginning as well…"
Kaede rested a hand under his chin, lost in thought.
After a moment, he formed a one-handed seal and summoned another Wood Clone. Then, pressing his hands together, he activated the jutsu again. This time, the black script rapidly emerged, forming interwoven chains that coalesced into a solid black sphere.
The sphere wrapped around the Wood Clone, then dispersed into thousands of black sealing symbols that embedded themselves into the clone's body.
"…It worked!"
Sensing that the clone was no longer leaking chakra and that it naturally disintegrated afterward, Kaede let out a slight smile.
At last, the sealing technique capable of isolating Hamura's chakra within Hinata was complete.
"A sealing technique superior to the Eight Trigrams Seal… and able to seal even Six Paths chakra… I'll call it Seal of the Night."
"…If it were Minato, he'd probably call it something ridiculous like Black Spiral Dark Light Sealing Art: Ninth Form."
Naming his first original sealing jutsu, Kaede couldn't help but poke fun at Minato's dramatic naming habits. He then raised his hand again.
Of course, it wasn't ready just yet.
Although the jutsu worked, the sealing script it left behind was visible, black markings that looked like chains across the target's body. Kaede had no intention of placing something like that on Hinata. He needed to refine it further.
Now that the core structure was complete, the rest was easier. With a few adjustments, Kaede modified the seal so that after activation, all the script would contract in one direction and ultimately condense into a single strand of hair, leaving no visible traces.
"That should do it."
Watching the Wood Clone vanish after the test, Kaede nodded in satisfaction.
But to be absolutely sure…
He didn't apply it to Hinata right away. Instead, with a flicker of motion, he appeared at the village gate and landed on top of the Nine-Tails' head.
With a casual gesture, he slapped the seal onto Kurama.
Nearby Konoha shinobi watched in shock as the Nine-Tails, who had been lounging and watching TV, was suddenly bound by thick black chains and wrapped into a compact ball.
"What the he, "
Kurama tried to protest, struggling violently, but his voice was instantly muffled, as if someone had shoved a gag in his mouth.
Then his massive form rapidly shrank and compressed, flying toward Kaede and landing atop his head, transforming into a single strand of black hair.
Kaede reached up and flicked the curved black strand resting on his crown.
"Yep… seems like it's working just fine."
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Completed version available on Patreon.com/Veltoria